Russian Grand Prix: Lewis Putin it to the rest!

Due to travelling commitments I, The F1 Spectator, have been unable to see the race or write my usual blog. As a result I have asked a guest blogger, the aptly named F1 Watcher, to fill in for me. So here goes...

Being asked to be The F1 Spectator's guest blogger, I knew was never going to be an easy job. The first race since Jules Bianchi's accident was always going to be especially tough, his car still sat in the garage waiting for his return. I think I agree with Martin Brundle that the photo call with Bianchi's name in front of the drivers should have been done earlier and not five minutes before the start. This would have allowed the drivers to focus on the driving, to ensure their safety. That said, I respect the tribute to their colleague.


So the cars set up, ready to go, and what a start we were treated to! Cars were everywhere. At times they were three abreast in only a small space of track. Many cars left the track, overrunning corners and generally running out of space. It was such a shame to see Rosberg go too fast too soon, locking up heavily and wrecking his tyres. It would have been nice to see more of a fight between the two Mercedes drivers. Another exciting moment, through the opening laps, was when the two Red Bulls and the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat had a brief fight, almost touching each other.


As the Grand Prix unfolded there were a few more bits of good racing, but to be fair this was not turning out to be the most exciting of races. Rosberg did well to move right up through the pack, only having to overtake a few cars, most of the overtaking being done through the pit stops. Massa appeared to be making progress through the field, however, like Ricciardo, he fell back down the order. The Mercedes radio transmissions were nice and calm, which makes a change from Hamilton moaning. There was a transmission from Rosberg saying his tyres were graining and Hamilton jumped in, just after, saying how good his tyres were. When asked if Rosberg could go to the end of the race with only one stop, he replied "yes all good", and proceeded to contradict the question by adding "well they are good at the moment". Sutil had a spin after touching Grosjean and only just managed to miss the wall. After the incidents of last weekend, I did wonder what was going through his mind?

The new track had very much an Indy car feel, maybe because it was quite narrow and enclosed. Interestingly, the track surface stayed very clean, with hardly any marbles to make the drive difficult. Congratulations must go to Mercedes on winning the Constructor's Championship. Despite their dominance being a little boring, at times, they have fully deserved their success this season. We just have to hope it stays close now, for the Driver's Championship.

Thank you to The F1 Spectator, for selecting me to write the blog this week. I look forward to reading the blog after the next race.

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	1:31:50.744	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	+13.6 secs	2	18
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	53	+17.4 secs	3	15
4	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+30.2 secs	4	12
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+53.6 secs	11	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	53	+60.0 secs	7	8
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+61.8 secs	6	6
8	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+66.1 secs	10	4
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+78.8 secs	8	2
10	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	53	+80.0 secs	12	1
11	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	53	+80.8 secs	18
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	53	+81.3 secs	17
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	53	+97.2 secs	9
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	52	+1 Lap	5
15	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	13
16	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	14
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	15
18	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	21
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	51	+2 Laps	16
Ret	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	21	Brakes	19
Ret	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	9	Retired	20

Russian Qualifying: Back in the USSR!!!

The Mercedes boys were back to their dominant selves, on paper at least. But in practice the Williams of Valtteri Bottas came very, very close to spoiling that party. We can't take any credit away from the Finn, as he hurled the car around the last couple of turns, attempting to pip Lewis Hamilton to the pole spot. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite capitalise on the fact that he was fastest through sectors one and two. Who knows, maybe he will have the pace to really challenge Lewis and Nico away from the lights.

Valtteri's stunning lap wasn't the only highlight of the session. After Q1 it felt like qualifying in Sochi would be the most boring of the year, with all the teams lining up in a ludicrously uniformed order. Mercedes were one and two, followed by the lone Williams of Bottas, due to Massa having problems and struggling to make the cut for Q2. In the rest of the field the McLarens were together, the Red Bulls were together and the Ferrari's were together. It was only in Q2 that things started to look a little less predictable.

The biggest upset was Sebastian Vettel not making it in to the Q3 Top Ten shootout. He has failed to match his team mate yet again and perhaps showed why he is leaving Red Bull Racing. Kvyat showed why he is joining 'the team with wings', by qualifying in a very respectable fifth place. It was a fantastic performance by him and extra special as he at his home Grand Prix this weekend. It must be a little concerning for Christian Horner, Helmut Marko and Dietrich Mateschitz, to see Red Bull Racing's sister team up there competing with them.

One highlight for me was Christian Horner, in an interview with the BBC, giving us all an insight in to the new nickname for Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, who will both be racing for Red Bull next year. Horner referred to the two Dannys as the Double Ds. I wonder if we'll see the same kind of struggle for dominance between those two, as we've seen between Hamilton and Rosberg.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:38.759	1:38.338	1:38.513	18
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:39.076	1:38.606	1:38.713	18
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:39.125	1:38.971	1:38.920	23
4	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.560	1:39.381	1:39.121	22
5	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:40.074	1:39.296	1:39.277	27
6	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.735	1:39.022	1:39.629	21
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:40.519	1:39.666	1:39.635	21
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:40.255	1:39.786	1:39.709	25
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:40.098	1:39.838	1:39.771	26
10	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:40.354	1:39.929	1:40.020	27
11	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:40.382	1:40.052		13
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.273	1:40.058		16
13	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.723	1:40.163		13
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:41.159	1:40.536		18
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:40.766	1:40.984		18
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:42.526	1:41.397		18
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:42.648			9
18	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:43.064			8
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:43.166			9
20	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:43.205			5
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:43.649			10

Italian Grand Prix: The best man won, in Monza!

It was a bit of an anti-climax, in terms of the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. However, I think one thing became clear today, and that was the difference in quality between the two drivers. In conclusion, I believe that Lewis is the better driver. They are very different racers, but Hamilton has consistently salvaged success from a troubled start, this season, and today was another example of that. He had a poor start, dropping back to fourth, but characteristically fought his way back in to contention. Nico, on the other hand, made not one but two unforced errors, which unquestionably cost him the race win. Many will feel that this result was karma for Rosberg's underhand move in Belgium, but either way Hamilton was the deserving winner.

Most of the action occurred further down the order, much like many of the other races this season. The battle for sixth place, in the closing stages of the Grand Prix, was on fire. It began with the two ex-teammates, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, in the McLaren and Force India, respectively. They had a breathtaking period of racing, through the beginning of lap forty, in which they were side by side for an unbelievable stretch of the lap. That heated battle drew Daniel Ricciardo in to the fight and he proceeded to dispatch both of them with skill beyond his years. He went on to catch and pass Magnussen and then Vettel, with the same efficiency, albeit on fresher tyres than his team mate. He still deserves a huge amount of credit, for the fashion in which he took the positions.

It is for this stage of the race that Daniel Ricciardo receives my coveted Driver of the Day award. The moves he made on Button, Perez and especially Magnussen were magnificent. The dummy he sold Magnussen in to the second chicane, was very special and stuck in my mind as the move of the race. He made a similar move on Sebastian Vettel and the reigning world champion must have wondered where the hell the Aussie, driving the exact same car as him, had come from. It wasn't a bad race for a team who were supposed to be well off the pace at this high speed circuit.

The biggest moment came on lap fifty-two, when Kimi Raikonnen, closely followed by Kvyat, had caught up to the back of the Button and Perez battle. On the approach to the first chicane Kvyat had some sort of issue with his brakes, whether they were damaged or he just forgot how to use them, and almost ploughed heavily in to the back of the Ferrari. Instead he was able to avoid the impact and hurtled on through the run off area, taking out one of the temporary bollards. He was fine, but his car and his race were effectively ruined, on the penultimate lap.

With the Italian Grand Prix over, the Mercedes rivalry is still very much alive and the gap between Lewis and Nico has shrunk rather than grown. Roll on Singapore, as the season enters its final stages and, despite the Mercedes dominance, an unprecedented climax.


Check out The Italian GP podcast and listen to The F1 Spectator himself.

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	1:19:10.236	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	+3.1 secs	2	18
3	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	53	+25.0 secs	4	15
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	53	+40.7 secs	3	12
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+50.3 secs	9	10
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+59.9 secs	8	8
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	53	+62.5 secs	10	6
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+63.0 secs	6	4
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+63.5 secs	11	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+66.1 secs	5	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	53	+71.1 secs	21
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	53	+72.6 secs	13
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	53	+73.0 secs	12
14	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	16
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	14
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	17
17	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	52	+1 Lap	18
18	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	19
19	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	51	+2 Laps	15
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	51	+2 Laps	22
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	28	+25 Laps	7
Ret	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	5	Accident	20